Pinkish Blobs
by singingstarryknights
Summary: Just a little bonding time between uncle and niece. Number 25 in the Ducks in a Row Series.


Pinkish Blobs

Just a little bonding time between uncle and niece. Number 25 in the Ducks in a Row Series.

………..

"Thank you so much." Sara pressed a light kiss to Nick's cheek, and was out the door in a matter of minutes. She had called him, somewhat panicked, Grissom had called her in early, and Greg was stuck pulling a triple, and no one could stay with Nora. Normally, the twelve year old could handle being home alone, and preferred the solidarity to get her homework done, but neither Sara nor Greg knew when they would be home, and Nick had the night off. Sara kept apologizing over and over, but, secretly, Nick was thrilled. Spending time with Nora was his favorite activity. He set down his bag, and shrugged off his jacket, making his way into the kitchen.

"Uncle Nicky, do you know what the capital of Texas is?" Nora sat at the kitchen table, curled up in one of the bar stool chairs, homework spread out all over before her. Nick laughed at the sight of her, drowning in Greg's tattered old hoodie from college, light blonde bangs falling in her eyes, hair swept up in a ponytail held with a shocking pink scrunchie. She grinned at him with Greg's bright smile, and he pulled out the bar stool beside her, sitting down.

"Texas, huh?"

"Yeah. Miss Gundy told us to compare Nevada to another state, and I picked Texas." Nora sat up straight, leaning over, and kissed the side of Nick's face, much like her mother minutes before. Nick leaned over her shoulder, peering at the work she had done.

"Austin."

"What?"

"State capital is Austin." Nick pointed to the city on a map of Texas that Nora had in front of her.

"Oh. Thanks." She rubbed the eraser of her pencil over where she had written in Dallas. "Dad said Dallas, but, to be fair, he wasn't paying attention. He was really frustrated about the decomp from last night." She smiled at Nick, and wrote in 'Austin' in her morphed Greg Sanders chicken scratch.

"Yeah? Grissom called him back in, right?"

"Yeah, he had just gotten into the shower and his pager went off." Nick nodded, that explained why Greg had been in such an irritated mood. He rested his head on top of his folded arms, watching her work diligently. "We were going to watch movies tonight, but he said that we'd have to do it the next time he had a night off, and then Mom told me to get my homework done." Nora set her pencil down, and sighed a heavily dramatic, almost-teenager sigh. "I wish I had art homework. At least art is fun."

"Greg said you were having a blast breaking in the old pottery wheel he found at that garage sale across from that 404 in Laughlin." She grinned at him, nodding.

"It's awesome. He tried to show me how to do it, but Mr. Schwartz had shown us how already, but Dad was so excited about it, he bought a book too, and when he tried to show me how to make a bowl, it flopped over because the clay wasn't in the middle, and it was too wet and went flying everywhere." Nora laughed. "Mom couldn't stop laughing. Dad had clay and slip all over his face and shirt." Nick chuckled, drawing a mental picture of what Greg must have looked like with reddish clay strewn all over him. "Then Mom made him take off his shirt so she could toss it in the laundry, and he kept taking about ghosts, and Mom smacked him." She shrugged, smiling at the memory. Nick rolled his eyes, leave it to Greg to make dirty references to 80s movies with his twelve year old in the room.

"Oh! I almost forgot." Nora jumped off the bar stool, and disappeared from the kitchen, only to reappear moments later with a pinkish blob the size of a candlepin bowling ball. Nick arched his eyebrow at his beloved little niece, grinning at her as she presented it to him with a Sanders-esque flourish of presentation, that made him laugh softly.

"What's this, Rosie?" Nora carefully placed the hard, shiny, _heavy_ pinkish blob in his hands. "I think it weighs more than you do."

"Uncle Nicky!" Nora groaned dramatically, and took her seat again beside him. "It's a tea mug, because you don't like coffee."

"It's beautiful, Eleanora." Nick turned the 'tea mug' over in his hands, touching the smooth, shiny surface. "Thank you." Nick leaned over, pressing a kiss to her blonde hair.

"It was Dad's idea to glaze it pink. He said it would be good for your image. He said if you had a pink tea mug, the women in the lab would know you had a sensitive side, and want to go out with you."

"It's not enough Sara is trying to set me up, but Greg is trying to marry me off as well?" Nick set his new pink tea mug down in front of him, and turned his gaze toward his niece.

"Yeah, he said Mom's efforts were amateur." Nick shook his head, amused.

"Whatever keeps them entertained."

"Uncle Nicky?"

"Mmhmm?" Nora pushed away her schoolwork, tired of working on her project.

"If I pick out a movie, can you make popcorn?" She tossed him a Sara Sidle half smile, and he rolled his eyes in mock dramatics.

"I suppose so. I'm taking it personally that you aren't finished with your Texas project, though." He laughed as she jumped out of the chair and bee lined it for the living room, and he followed minutes later with a bowl of popcorn. They fell into comfortable silence as Nora pushed the DVD in, and the opening credits of 'The Princess Bride' flashed on the screen.

Nick felt a tug at his heart as Nora climbed into the couch next to him, picking up his arm so it draped over her shoulders. She snuggled into his side, and he hugged her to him, plucking a kernel of popcorn out of the bowl between them.

"Can we play that game where we say the lines before the actors do?" Nora twisted only just to look up at Nick, popping a kernel into her own mouth. Nick chuckled softly, and kissed the top of her head.

"Sure."

That was how Greg found them when he came home four hours later. Asleep on the couch, an empty bowl of popcorn between them, the throw blanket wrapped around Nora's legs.

………

A/N: Planning 'duckie' with just Greg and Sara, I promise. I'm suffering withdrawal, but I wanted to get this one out there first. :grins madly: thanks for the love


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